48 Hours In Madrid?

As I have been planning for a while, I will fly into Madrid two days before uniting with the Malaga’s study abroad group in the capital and head down to Malaga. It’s great that I will have 48 hours to myself. So much freedom and so little time!

Thanks to Twitter, I ran into National Geographic’s article “48 Hours in Madrid” written by Lisa Abend. It is quite informative and offers something new that I haven’t read before. Still, it does not fail to include your typical touristy suggestions, so I’m not sure how to feel about this one.

So here’s how my preference and schedule fits into her suggestions

Day One

Morning: Wander Among the Masterpiece.

Yawn. I’m not too big of an art fan, so I’m going to pass this one, especially considering that my study abroad program will give a brief tour of Madrid and perhaps one of its prestigious museums. According to the website, it is unclear which museum we will be visiting. Regardless, for those who may be interested, Madrid has 3 main museums that form the Golden Triangle of Art: el Prado, Reina Sofia, and Thyssen-Bornemisza.

My alternative plan: I’m probably going to spend some time getting to the hostal!Who knows how long it will take me? For this reason, I decide to keep my itinerary very flexible. Depending on how hungry I will be, I may grab something to eat at the airport before getting on the airport express bus to the city center. If I wasn’t that hungry, I will leave the airport and go straight to the hostal, shower, change into something presentable and comfortable, then go find something to eat. (Either way, I must eat before doing any real activities. I know myself too well). Somehow I will need to find a convenience store and buy the necessary, meaning the basic toiletries and my favorite Spanish sports magazines like Marca and AS, as well as the fashion ones in the Spanish edition. My hostal is located a few feet away from Gran Via and its Spanish designer brands, so I will make a quick trip (HA, “quick”) to buy a new outfit, return to the hostal one more time to put the old clothes away, bidding farewell to my sad and untrendy clothes from the States, and THEN start my adventure: the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium tour!!!!! It’s a must for any real Real Madrid fan… I already bought my tour ticket! …Like a month ago… Can you tell I’m excited??? The only problem is knowing whose jersey to buy. I have less than two months to decide.

SO, FUNNY STORY: I was going back and forth between writing this post and referring back to the National Geographic’s article mentioned above, but apparently I no longer have access to the darn article unless I register or sign up for a new account. Oops. Whatever, I wasn’t going to follow her advice, anyway.

Marching on with my own plans and my own plans only:

Day One, Afternoon:

Suspecting that my Bernabeu tour may consume the first half of the afternoon, I don’t have any other major plans for the rest of the afternoon. I will probably finish the tour off at the Real Madrid shop and buying a souvenir for the biggest Real fan I know (myself, haha), but not a jersey, because, like I said, I can’t decide. I will spend the rest of the afternoon shopping and eating at random places…

Day One, Evening:

My goal is to make it to FNAC and buy a Marc Marquez’s book (I know, I know) and return to the hostal by 5 pm. I’m probably going to relax a bit, read the magazines, and fall asleep. I will head out for dinner again late at night, probably around 10, and stroll around the Plaza Mayor. Then the nightlife begins….I have yet to do some research on this, so stay tuned.

Day Two. Morning:

Possibly making my way back to the hostal before 4am, I will sleep a bit and wake up no later than 9am. After breakfast, I plan to visit the National Spanish soccer team’s museum; and this time, I know whose jersey to buy ;). This alone should take up the whole morning.

Day Two, Afternoon:

The serious shopping begins. By this afternoon, I must visit the must-visit shops that may or may not be located on Gran Via (Take Superdry, Hoss Intropia, and Hugo Boss, for example) and obtain the much-desired items like the Zara and Bershka perfumes. I will also likely visit El Corte Ingles and stock some decent toiletries and hair products. Heck, I might even buy a hair straightener. We’ll see.

Day Two, Evening:

Not much is planned at this point. I will just do my typical tapas and bar-hopping. Chances are I won’t stay out as late, because I need to meet up with my study abroad group the next day.